Thursday 5th June 2025
Blog Page 662

Former Nuffield fellow denounced for “racist pseudoscience”

Ben van der Merwe
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Former Nuffield fellow denounced for “racist pseudoscience”

Former Nuffield College researcher Noah Carl has been denounced by hundreds of academics for what they describe as his “racist pseudoscience.” Carl is now a Fellow at St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge.

Over 200 academics from across the country expressed concern that Carl’s association with the University of Cambridge would legitimise “discredited ‘race science’”.

In an open letter, the group called on St. Edmund’s College to investigate how the Toby Jackman Newton Trust Research Fellowship was awarded to Carl.

The letter read: “We are shocked that a body of work that includes vital errors in data analysis and interpretation appears to have been taken seriously for appointment to such a competitive research fellowship.”

The academics noted that his “pseudoscientific” papers have “been used by extremist and far-right outlets with the aim of stoking xenophobic anti-immigrant rhetoric.”

An article in which Carl argued that public prejudices against immigrants were “largely accurate” was re-posted on far-right outlets including The Daily Caller, InfoWars and Free West Media, despite one external reviewer writing that “it is never OK to publish research this bad.”

Carl has written numerous articles for publications with links to the far-right. He is on the review team of Emil Kirkegaard’s OpenPsych and is the website’s most prolific contributor after Kirkegaard himself. Kirkegaard describes himself as a “self-taught” geneticist who has previously defended child rape, and appeared on the far-right webshow Reality Calls to discuss the “future of eugenics.”

Among Carl’s OpenPsych papers is one arguing that an increased Muslim population leads to more terrorism in the country. The paper was subsequently reviewed by Kirkegaard and self-described “race realist” John Fuerst.

Carl has also written for Mankind Quarterly, described as a white supremacist journal and published by the Pioneer Fund, a pro-eugenics fund which also bankrolls Jared Taylor’s white nationalist American Renaissance.

The former Nuffield postdoctoral researcher attracted controversy earlier this year, when London Student revealed that he had repeatedly attended a secretive conference on eugenics at UCL. The London Conference on Intelligence is closely linked to the Pioneer Fund, and was organised by Emil Kirkegaard.

The conference saw researchers argue that racial ‘admixture’ has a negative effect on population quality and that the number of Nobel Prizes won by different countries can be explained by racial differences in male hormone levels.

The academic left Nuffield College at the end of his contract this summer.

Oxford announces plans for new postgraduate college

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Oxford announces plans for new postgraduate college

Oxford has today announced plans to create a new graduate college, hoping to recruit 200 graduate students in 2019-2020 for admission in September 2020.

The 39th Oxford college, which has yet to be named, will specialise in the Division of Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences, although students from other subjects will also be admitted.

The new college will be built on the site of the Radcliffe Science Library on Parks Road. The University says students will “enjoy a central Oxford location and a vibrant scholarly, sporting and cultural life.”

Louise Richardson, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, has offered the position of Head of House of the college to Professor Lionel Tarassenko CBE FREng FMedSci, who has held the Chair in Electrical Engineering at Oxford since 1997.

Professor Richardson said: “Lionel Tarassenko was the driving force behind Oxford’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering, in which he also established a Centre of Excellence in Medical Engineering. 

“The Institute was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2014 for success in forging collaboration between engineering and medicine. He is indefatigable in translating ideas into practical impact and in bringing smart people together. 

“A committed researcher and teacher, Lionel has supervised more than 60 doctoral students and is superbly qualified to lead Oxford’s 39th college.”

The plan, hinted at in a previous announcement in August, is part of a wider strategy by Oxford to increase its postgraduate intake by 850 per year by 2023 while continuing to pride itself on world-class tutoring and research.

Armitage’s Gawain: translating in wylde wayeȝ

Penry Buckley
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Armitage’s Gawain: translating in wylde wayeȝ

This Michaelmas, in the first of his final year of lectures as Professor of Poetry, Simon Armitage chose to revisit his 2007 translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, of which a revised, illustrated version has just been released.

A medieval text which lay dormant in an undiscovered manuscript until the mid-nineteenth century, Gawain has found new life in translations, of which, as Armitage admits in his original introduction, there exist “dozens, possibly hundreds” – some of them scholarly, some in verse, some in prose, many of them amateur and posted on the Internet.

Armitage’s own celebrated translation is unusual in its attempt to convey the original poem’s alliterative metre and four-stress lines in modern English. Armitage, like the Gawain-poet, is a Northerner and thus shares an affinity with the original poem’s distinctive dialect. Despite this, he is an unapologetic defender of modern translation, which as he says, opens up what would be a poem of minority interest to a much wider audience. This translation preserves the entertaining narrative and timeless questions about moral codes, as well as our relationship with the natural world.

With a poem like Gawain, whose difficult, winding language makes contemporaries like Chaucer seem easy-going in comparison, translation makes sense as an aid even to scholarly readers. But Armitage’s defence of translation reflects its continued low status – it seems a widely-held belief by those in the know that literature is always better in the original, a belief which seemingly discourages many from ever reading foreign language texts – by recent estimates, translations only account for 2% of books sold in the United Kingdom.

Having studied English and modern languages and read texts in the original and in translation, it is hard to say which has more value. The realities of a languages degree are such that is often hard to read a text entirely in the original in time for a class or a tutorial, and English translations quickly present themselves as a time-saving option, their unimpeded reading, I have found, often resulting in a better sense of the essence of a text.

To read in the original language is to get a stronger sense of the language spoken by the author and in which their ideas were formulated, but the frustration of trying to keep in mind, say, the many clauses and sub-clauses of a 600 word Proust sentence, before finding you have to look up a word in the middle, inevitably leads to a more frustrated sense of these ideas. As imperfect readers, our individual frames of reference are such that we only gather some of what is being said – familiarity with the original language of a text, although important, is only one of these frames of reference.

Translation is not without flaws – it cannot help but alter authorial voice, although the degree to which this takes place is certainly not consistent. Indeed, Armitage’s translation, with its clear sense of his own voice, often reads like a retelling, and might more accurately be described as adaptation (though the line between the two is certainly vague).  While sometimes modern English allows him able to stay close to the original – ‘his vesture uerayly watȝ clene verdure’ becomes ‘In all vestments he revealed himself veritably verdant!’ – his decision to stick with alliteration often results in a slightly different meaning. In the translation of a line like ‘syþen waked me wyþ’ into ‘yet you joined in my revelling right royally every night’, Armitage’s modern alliteration, a technique now more associated with nursery rhyme than romance, imbues the translation with a comic delight in the quaintness of medieval life that is not in the original.

Similarly, it is a reflection of the slow death of regional dialects in the United Kingdom that Armitage’s broadly Northern tongue only approximates the original poet’s more localised Staffordshire-Cheshire dialect. Although Armitage could not be accused of obscuring Gawain’s Northernness, translation clearly does have negative potential, not helped by the fact that translators into English are more often than not native-English speakers, who, in translating the literature of countries that might have been former colonies, might have an inclination to obscure the political or cultural ‘Other’. Clearly, in reading in translation, it is just as important to have a sense of the translator and their intentions as it is of those of the author.

Ironically, medieval attitudes to authorship and transmission were far more relaxed than our own, and there was the expectation that texts would change via the hands of different scribes. The Gawain manuscript, for example, is widely accepted not to be in the hand of the author, and the text itself is the product of mutual exchange between languages and cultures through translation – the French romances which English Arthurian tradition drew on postulated themselves as re-imaginings of Ancient British oral traditions.

The sense of an individual authorial voice is evidently more important for modern readers: the value we accord to a translation comes down to how important we view the pure preservation of this is, in relation to the other things we gain from the literature of the past and of other languages. Whether these are universal themes, or an understanding of the individuals and periods that produced it, Armitage’s Gawain seems to find a balance.

Oxford Men win 137th Rugby Varsity Match in a stunning show of teamwork

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Oxford Men win 137th Rugby Varsity Match in a stunning show of teamwork

Oxford won the 137th men’s varsity match today 38-16, after a thrilling game saw them surge to a succession of tries in the second half. This is the first varsity victory for the dark blues since 2015, preventing a Cambridge hat-trick, and bringing the varsity total scores to 63 for Cambridge to Oxford’s 60 wins.

In the first quarter of the game at Twickenham Cambridge seemed to dominate, with the score at 6-0 to the light blues after fifteen minutes. Oxford struggled with high balls and were making errors. Oxford also suffered injuries in the early stages with number eight Sven Kerneis being replaced with Ryan Jones due to a blood injury, five minutes into the game. Mike Phillips converted both of Cambridge’s early penalties but by the twenty-minute mark Oxford seemed to come into the game. Fly Half Tom Humberstone cleared a penalty, giving Oxford their first points. This was to be the first of 6 successful kicks for the number 10 who successfully converted all five of the subsequent tries for Oxford. Going into the final ten minutes of the half Oxford appeared to be moving laterally and not managing to push the game forward towards the try line. After a scare of a near-miss Cambridge try and another successful penalty kick from Phillips, Oxford won a lineout at the 37 minute mark. Fantastic and quick partnership work from full back Ben Ransom and winger Dan Barley down the right side of the pitch brought Oxford their first try by the end of the half.

The second half was a different story and a convincing display of Oxford talent led to a flurry of tries which secured the final score. Four minutes in, Charlie Pozniak, the dark blue blind side flanker, scored Oxford’s second try. Scrum half George Tressider had a poor game and Cambridge snuck back some possession but the third Oxford try came at the 60 minute mark. An impressive insertion of pace by Tom Stileman brought Oxford over the try line again in the left corner. After a yellow card for Cambridge kicker Mike Phillips left them a man down, there was a repeat of Oxford’s first half try with Ransom making another crucial pass which allowed for Barley to touch down again. With the score at 29-9 Oxford appeared to have the game but Cambridge captain Koster brought the light blues their first try, increasing their points to 16. In the final moments of the game, after a smooth and powerful final drive from Oxford, another stunning show of flair from consistent kicker Humberstone led to Oxford’s fifth try when he touched down after a series of fast passes crossed the ball across the pitch.

Oxford and Cambridge were on relatively equal standings going into the match, having both won seven of their ten warm up fixtures. Despite Cambridge having ten returning blues to Oxford’s five, the dark blues had the advantage of five players in the team having had experience playing for premiership sides. Captain for Cambridge, Nick Koster, who has played in South Africa and for Bath and Bristol, had a good game but suffered a blood injury in second half and did not manage to inject needed aggression and power into the Cambridge side in the second half. The standout players for Oxford were Waldouck, Humberstone and Barley as well as Ben Ransom who was awarded player of the match. Reflecting on the victory Ransom noted that Oxford had a “tough first 20 minutes” but they managed to “build into the game and score some nice tries in the second half.”

Speaking to Cherwell, Oxford Captain Dom Waldouck said that the most important thing for him was that Oxford managed to weather the pressure early on. Reflecting on how the team dealt with the pressure of Twickenham Waldouck said “the focus on processes and the focus on us helped us deal with the occasion, we had to take the factor of the occasion out and focus on exactly what we were doing.”

When asked about his captaincy, Waldouck told Cherwell: “its been a huge learning curve in understanding and managing people and how to communicate, I’m so proud of what the group has become, how close we are, how much we care about each other and I think we showed that when we came under a lot of pressure today.”

Oxford’s George Robson also commented on the nature of the team, telling Cherwell that he was “so proud, I have friends for the rest of my life now which makes it all the more special. The whole squad came on and everyone did their bit, we had trust in each other and showed resilience.”

Cambridge win 30th Women’s Varsity Match 8-5

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Cambridge win 30th Women’s Varsity Match 8-5

Cambridge won the 30th Women’s Varsity Match 8-5 at Twickenham today. This is their fourth win since 2015 when the women’s matched moved to the home of English rugby. Oxford last won in 2016 and fought hard today, coming back from 8-0 at the 74th minute with a try from lock Katie Collis. Cambridge’s early try, 28 minutes in, by number eight Emily Pratt gave them a surge after early Oxford dominance. Despite holding a large amount of the possession throughout the match the Oxford side failed to convert this pressure into points and ran out of time in the second half in what was a very closely fought game.

In the first half, sharp pace from the dark blues brought them very close to the try line and they kept the ball in Cambridge’s half. A powerful tackle from vice-captain Sophie Trott, who was competing in her fourth and final varsity match, led to a line-out which was won by Oxford. This was the start of a very strong game for Trott who along with Captain Abby D’cruz appeared to be the star players in dark blue, holding the team together and providing essential speed. After keeping the play under their control for 20 minutes Oxford responded to a quick attack from Cambridge with full back Connie Hurton acting as Oxford’s last line of defence and tackling the light blue player efficiently. Despite very good play from both Oxford winger Wigginton and Hurton (who today adds another blue to her cross country blue from 2017), Cambridge put into a scrum just meters from Oxford’s try line and Pratt was able to take a try for the light blues. Cambridge were unable to convert however and five points down Oxford’s women pushed onwards, led by Lock Shekinah Opara. After powerful clashes both Coleman and Bradshaw for Cambridge were treated for blood injuries and taken off with seven minutes of the half remaining. With five minutes of the half to go Katie Collis pushed over the Cambridge try line but was unable to touch down, unfortunately such scenes optimised the game, Oxford had chances and held onto possession but failed to convert into points. Going into half time Oxford certainly looked the better side but despite their efforts were unable to capitalise on their own strength.

From the restart Cambridge kept the game in Oxford’s 22 and gained a penalty with light blue Alice Elgar taking the kick and adding three more points to their total, nine minutes into the half. D’Cruz, often acting as the key screw in the Oxford machine made a break along with Wigginton and pushed into Cambridge’s half. After a string of replacements and Sophie Farrant, winger for Cambridge, being taken off on a stretcher with a leg injury, Oxford seemed to be making a comeback into the game. A renewed effort with eight minutes of the game remaining led to the dark blues edging ever closer to their try line, after a scrum and D’Cruz kicking into the corner, Oxford won their lineout and Katie Collis pushed over the line for Oxford’s first try. This was not only Oxford’s first try of the game but also their first at the Twickenham varsity match. Captain D’Cruz missed the all-important conversion which would have closed the score gap and it was starting to look like an Oxford win was falling out of grasp with four minutes remaining. Oxford won several more lineouts and kept possession allowing for Sophie Trott to sprint forward over 30 meters in a last dash for points, but time was up and Cambridge took the victory.

Player of the match was awarded to Cambridge’s Amelia Miller who at number 11 was able to contribute to Cambridge’s powerful advances. After the match Cambridge captain Kate Marks expressed that she “could not be prouder of every single one of [the Cambridge] girls”, she added that they had “worked so hard, every single girl has earned their shirt”.

Speaking to Cherwell after the match Oxford’s Sophie Trott said: “The work rate of the girls today was unbelievable. It was the best game of rugby we’ve played ever. Everyone managed to keep their heads. The standard this year, thinking back to my first year, the standard has grown exponentially.”

When asked about how it felt to be in the 30th women’s varsity match Trott said: “It was just a great display of rugby, of how aggressive it is and how hard people can hit, and its not just men that smash people, we do it too.”

Also speaking to Cherwell, Abby D’Cruz said that the women’s game has “come a really long way and I think the reason for that is the visibility that things like the Varsity match give to women’s rugby. There are loads of school kids here today, lots of young girls there knowing they can come to Oxford and Cambridge and play rugby and have that community.”

The occasion of the match was celebrated by past players of the Women’s Varsity match creating a guard of honour for the teams as they ran out onto the pitch. The player of the match medal was presented to Cambridge’s Amelia Miller by women’s captains Heather Lawrence (Oxford) and Sophia Mirchandani (Cambridge), who led the first women’s teams at the Varsity match in 1988.

The Winter’s Tale review – atmospheric and otherworldly

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The Winter’s Tale review – atmospheric and otherworldly

It is difficult to imagine how The Winter’s Tale might work in a black box theatre. Neither Florizel and Perdita’s pastoral scenes nor the open grandeur of courtly life would seem to lend themselves to such a small and dark interior. But in Agnes Pethers’s production, the obscurity of the black box becomes central to the show: sequinned cloths constantly shimmer in the background, and an alien blue light often only half-lights the actors. The music is eerie, and the set minimal: it is almost like walking into a cabaret club, but one that is occupied by a ‘kindly Edwardian gentleman, ensconced in an upholstered armchair by the fire, relating an old, half-remembered story’ (Jonathan Bate). Pethers’s production deals well with the strangeness of The Winter’s Tale by making it central to the show’s aesthetic.

Positioned just beyond the stage, Bate’s narrator is wonderfully adept at grounding what can otherwise feel otherworldly, verging on the ridiculous: he incorporates oracles, sea voyages and a onesie-dressed ‘bear’ into his storytelling. It is a particularly clever move to make a meta-theatrical feature of the play’s more fantastical qualities: the intimate relationship between audience and storyteller means that what is ‘real’ can be pushed far more than it might be otherwise. My only gripe was that the decision to have most of the seating on one flat platform slightly detracted from this effect: I often found it difficult to see what was happening on stage, particularly when actors spoke from the floor.

Harry Berry as Camillo, Tom Fisher as Florizel/Antigonus and Jonny Wiles as Polixenes are the stand out performances. Wiles and Berry are wonderful as they dress up in beards to spy on Florizel and Perdita (Kathryn Cussons): they provide great light relief throughout, and Berry is particularly amusing as the bashful husband-to-be of Paulina.

Kristen Cope’s choreography also contributes to this light-heartedness: dances between Hermione and Polixenes, or Florizel and Perdita, are unexpectedly touching. And what with Bate in the armchair and students playing the other parts, the decision to have a little girl play the part of Mamillius not only delights the audience (a chorus of ‘aahhs’ ensues whenever she appears) but really makes it feel as though this is a story being transferred from old to young.

But the show does have some more difficult moments. Whilst James Fairhead’s more subdued Leontes contrasts nicely with Wiles’s jovial Polixenes, Leontes’s violent emotional trajectory is not always convincing, and scenes between Leontes and Hermione (Teddy Briggs) struggle to reach tragic climax.

It is a production that sits more comfortably with the comic scenes in the play, and is at its best when it is entertaining: the second half of the play is certainly stronger than the first, led to its conclusion by the strength of Sophie Keynes’s performance as Paulina.

Auditioning – what it’s actually like

Beata Kuczynska
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Auditioning – what it’s actually like

Going to an audition is probably scarier than exams, or the prospect of a summer with no more Love Island. You never quite know what to expect, even when you’re fully prepared, and I personally have had some pretty strange experiences over the years. I’ve auditioned for plays, musicals, pantomimes, theatre companies and more, so I’ve seen a lot – from having water poured down my neck to being held by the legs like a human wheelbarrow. Auditions can be nerve-wracking, but they can also be educational, enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable.

Perhaps the worst audition I ever went to was one of the few professional auditions I’ve experienced. My agent emailed me the day before about an audition for the role of Dorothy in a pantomime production of The Wizard of Oz. I was sixteen at the time, at least two years younger than all of the other girls at the audition, so it was pretty intimidating. I showed up at 9am and joined the queue of at least 200 girls out the door of the theatre. The aspect I remember most was that we were all given numbers and addressed by our number – on that day, I became number 21. Despite being not too far down the line, I still had to wait until 2pm to audition, and by the time it rolled around, I was pretty much shaking with nerves. I went in, sang a song that was completely inappropriate to the role I was going for and left straight after.

On a happier note, auditions usually go better when you know the show and you’ve prepared sufficiently. It also helps if you like the show you’re going for – passion really comes across to the casting team. My best audition was probably when I tried out for a production of Les Miserables, and ended up being cast in the role of Fantine. The reason it went well was because I absolutely adore Les Mis and put everything into preparing a rendition of I Dreamed a Dream. Be warned, however, that it is uncommon to sing or read from the production you are auditioning, particularly with professional productions. If the casting directors don’t ask you to prepare something from the show, do not do so as it often shows laziness and unoriginality, to put it bluntly. It doesn’t show you off in a good light.

Solo auditions won’t be the only types of auditions you come across. Group or workshop style auditions are also pretty common as it gives the casting team a chance to see how you interact with other actors, and figure out what pairings would work well together. One of the most memorable workshop auditions I have attended was the time I auditioned for the National Theatre’s production of Cesario in 2012. It was a day long audition that mostly involved drama exercises and script reading, and I ended up having water poured down my neck – it made sense in the context of the play, I promise. It wasn’t the most pleasant experience, but hey, I ended up getting the role! Don’t be afraid to take risks and put yourself out there – casting directors see a lot of people and you want them to remember you, even if it’s for being willing to get your clothes wet.

Enough about my experiences – here are a few last bits of advice for those who have any auditions coming up. Firstly, make sure you’re prepared: it helps so much with nerves being confident that you know your stuff. Secondly, don’t go on about your cold or various impediment to the casting agents – it’ll make them irritated, not sympathetic. I once met a girl at a National Youth Music Theatre audition who talked about her laryngitis at every stage of the day, and she was not hugely popular by 6pm. Finally, don’t worry if you mess up an audition. It’s all good experience and some shows simply won’t be right for you! Remember, for every yes there are a thousand theatrical no’s.

Oxford announces demolition of Tinbergen Building

Charlotte Moberly
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Oxford announces demolition of Tinbergen Building

The Tinbergen building, which currently houses the departments of Zoology and Experimental Psychology, is to be demolished, Oxford University has announced. The facility will be replaced by a new life sciences centre for the Departments of Plant Sciences, Experimental Psychology and Zoology.

The presently empty Tinbergen building had to be evacuated in February 2017 after the discovery of asbestos that could not be disposed of while the building was still in use, causing some disruption to students and staff. The departments were subsequently moved into temporary accommodation.

The building is set to be destroyed after current work to remove asbestos is completed. Construction work will then begin for the new centre, and is expected to continue into 2022.

Although the centre is unlikely to open in time for some students to use the new facilities, many have been positive about the plans.

One Biological Sciences student said: “I think it will improve biology because at the moment our buildings aren’t that modern so it will be nice to have a modern one.”

Staff have also expressed excitement at the prospect of new facilities.

The Head of the Department for Plant Sciences, George Ratcliffe, said in a recent department newsletter that “there would be clear benefits in bringing two organismal biology Departments under the same roof”.

However, the announced destruction of the Tinbergen building, regarded in Oxford as a brutalist landmark, has drawn concern from the Oxford Brutalist Society, who say they are “devastated at the university decision to destroy the Tinbergen building” and expressed concern that “concrete masterpieces are continually knocked down with no regard to their architectural significance”.

Oxford City Council is in consultation regarding the plans for the new building, and Oxford residents are to have an opportunity to comment on the issue in 2019.

The University has been contacted for comment.

Saïd announce “sustainable” re-development

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Saïd announce “sustainable” re-development

Oxford’s Saïd Business School has announced plans to spend £60m on expanding its premises, developing the nearby Victorian-style Osney Power Station into a luxury campus.

As well as offering bedrooms for visiting executives, the proposed scheme will include flexible meeting spaces, a dining space, and a leisure facility which includes a gym and a multipurpose exercise studio.

Spokesperson for the Said Business School, Josie Powell, told Cherwell: “Consistent with the values of the school, the project aims to capitalise upon leading-edge thinking on sustainable development and proposes the use of a photovoltaic solar installation, green roofs, and bird and bat boxes.”

Source: Said Business School

The expansion plans are awaiting approval from the Oxford City Council, but School hopes to begin the main works in summer 2019 to be completed after approximately two years. 

The plans have attracted a preliminary donation of £16.8m from the Saïd Foundation and its founder, Wafic Saïd, who gave his name to the Business School upon its founding in 1996.

Dean of the Business School, Peter Tufano, said: “We are deeply grateful to Mr Saïd and to the Saïd Foundation for their continuing and generous support of the School and its future growth.

“Mr Saïd’s donation will now enable the School to launch a wider fundraising campaign to secure additional major donations to support this state of the art project, which is currently estimated to cost just over £60m.”

While awaiting development of the new campus into the Global Leadership Centre, current students will be situated at Egrove Park, where executive education programmes continue to be delivered.

Women’s Varsity three decades on

Cal Flintoff
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Women’s Varsity three decades on

When Oxford women take to the turf tomorrow there will be an added spring in their step, a zip to their movements, a heightened awareness of the large slice of history being made on their own personal patch of turf. For just the third time, and the first for many, they will reach the Twickenham turf.

The 30th anniversary of the Women’s Varsity Match is a unique occasion. Unique in that it meshes celebration and rivalry, representing a highly significant twist in the intertwined path that the two shades of blue have traced through the three decades of challenges that have determined where they are today.

The spectacle has not always been so grand. As the story goes, the contest was fashioned in a cantabrigian watering hole: a few drinks, a gauntlet laid down, and a challenge accepted.

St Hugh’s postgrad and Oxford Judo Blue Heather Bunting had been enlisted to drive to the Other Place a bunch of keen cricketers shy of transportation and, likely, manners. Unbeknownst to them, the journey would set into motion the beginnings of a contest at the vanguard of the development of Women’s rugby.

Bunting struck up conversation with fellow rugby nut Sophia Pegers, of Robinson College, and the duo began to formulate ad-hoc plans of a fixture in the mould of a Varsity Match. Players, kits, venues, officials: they would come later. Right then it was just pure ambition, enthusiasm, and determination that ensured the match would indeed take place. The journey home to Oxford would carry home a lot more than just the cricketers it brought.

And so, on Thursday 10th March 1988, Iffley Road played host to the first of thirty Varsity Matches, a tight affair decided 8-6 by a try from the Cambridge captain. A fitting tribute, to score the winning try, but Pegers (now Mirchandani) was unaware of the legacy she had entrenched.

She said: “I didn’t think about where it might go, or even if it would carry on.

“We were doing it because we wanted official recognition.”

Oxford borrowed shirts from the Men’s Greyhound side. Cambridge were vehemently denied the honour of the traditional white and blue and instead wore red. The first International game had taken place just five years earlier in Utrecht, The Netherlands; a Women’s RFU did not spring up until a year later in 1983. As Heather Bunting recalls, this was a venture into the complete unknown, a shot to nothing in the face of almighty odds: “We were playing to win but, having lost, I wasn’t sick as a parrot, I was just stunned we had pulled it off.”

The fixture would go from strength to strength, college rugby proliferating as spectators turned players, Grange Road opening its doors to the idea a year later, and word of mouth becoming more organised recruitment.

Oxford would triumph for the next eight consecutive years – a record that today still stands – no doubt sculpting the rivalry that we see today, the winning mentality. But on the 30th anniversary, take a moment to appreciate, to celebrate, the duo who worked so incredibly hard to put the two teams in the position where they can go full throttle at one another.

It is their passion that is distilled in the pioneers who amalgamated the Men’s and Women’s rugby clubs at both universities, in those who fought to bring the Women’s game to Twickenham in 2016, and in those who ensure vital sponsors such as Hill adorn the shirts and continue to provide the funding so necessary for growth.

Former players from both institutions have been invited en masse to mark the occasion and support the current generation and will welcome the players to the pitch with a guard of honour. For players such as Oxford Captain Abby D’Cruz, who were not born when the rivalry was, a visit from Bunting (now Lawrence) helped to illustrate how far the contest, the rivalry, and the women’s game in general, has come in such a short space of time.

Speaking to the Varsity Match site, she echoed the amplified aura about this specific fixture: “The occasion is obviously a bit more significant for us this year, celebrating thirty years of women’s rugby at Oxford and Cambridge is huge, and I think really, really significant. It’s one of the oldest women’s rugby fixtures in the world, so having that knowledge going into it really adds to the occasion.”

Only two weeks ago, Twickenham played host to another double-header as England Women defeated Ireland Women in front of over 10,000 fans upon conclusion of the Autumn International between England and Australia. The expansion of the Women’s game in the country is reflected by the recently celebrated decision from the RFU to offer 28 full-time contracts, enabling players to concentrate solely on their rugby, and for young girls with mindsets in the mould of Bunting and Pegers to genuinely aspire to play the game. It is a reflection of an England side who have reached the last five World Cup Finals, and six of the last seven (lifting the trophy in 2014).

Whatever happens tomorrow, whichever shade triumphs, the spirit of this most iconic duo will continue to thrive amongst both teams, and player of the match will be bestowed the honour of the Bunting-Pegers award.

For Abby D’Cruz, this is an opportunity to give something back. She said: “It’s thinking about all the women that came before us who’ve worn the crown and that just adds to the sense of occasion on the day.

“Really, I think for us the best gift we can give them is going out there and playing the Oxford game: carrying hard, hitting hard, just making sure we put it all out there. I think that’s the greatest way we can represent dark blue on the day.”

 

 

 

 

 

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